The story
- Latin · derived fromvēla“sails of a ship”
- English todayVela
Named by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1763. From Latin vēla (“sails of a ship”), plural of vēlum. Doublet of veil.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
vela
Today it means: A spring constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble the sails of a ship. Until 1763, it was part of a larger constellation, Argo Navis. Full definition →
Latin vēla